Our life living off the land in our log cabin, breathing fresh mountain air, and getting back to basics.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Deck Building, Day 4 & A Front Rolling Through

Before I begin with the deck, I'll share the horizon this evening...a front is moving through no doubt about it. About 1/2 hour after this photo was taken, the bank of clouds far beyond the mountains puffed up into dark, menacing looking clouds that have been approaching at a steady pace...not sure if a storm will hit us but it is supposed to get cold tomorrow...woo hoo for that!

So here we are, day 4 of deck building. I see great progress each time we work on this deck; the days Ronnie is here we make great strides, and in between, Mountain Man and I complete the needed tasks to keep things progressing, slowly but surly. But my goodness, this is hard work and a project that takes many man hours. I must admit, I physically work on this project to the best of my ability, and I questioned using the term man hours in the sentence above, but truth be told, deck building requires brute strength, precision, and endurance. All of these things are qualities I do possess, however not necessarily to the degree required.

Most of the time I would consider myself like a "nurse", though in man language it is "go-fer" and "help-er"...I prefer my own descriptive...I anticipate the next steps, bringing the necessary tools/supplies, carry wood to the saw horses, hold posts, confirm measurements, eyeball linear accuracy, hammer when I can and clean up the trash scraps. I also prepare lunch and clean up afterwards, and ensure there is coffee in the morning and water available throughout the day. Today, when we got to the point we could begin nailing the floor boards, I thought I can do this, and tried, and tried, and tried again. After the 4th nail I bent, I decided I needed to wait until there were more than 3 widths of floor boards set before I could position myself well enough to nail effectively...so I gave up my hammer and went back to "nursing". I don't mean to demean the roll, I know it is important. I suppose today I just wish I could have been a better "floor boarder"!

With all that said, we have made progress! Early today...

This is the floor board progress...an exciting step to be taking (ha ha, pun intended)! See the hammer in the forefront? That is where I was trying to crouch and hammer...perhaps you can empathize with me now:)

And when the rain forced us to quit (even though we were becoming exhausted and were all silently appreciative of the rain)...this was the result of our days' labor...there are 5 rows of floor boards that are attached, the rest are just sitting on the joists for easy access and for making walking easier up there.

It's a a little difficult to see all that was accomplished, but we have all the posts installed, most of the girders, all the joists that we could, and the beginning of the floor. Below is a picture from our bedroom window looking through the screen, but you can see the far side of the deck that can not be shown in detail from the usual photo perspective I share...

...the diagonal post is stabilizer until we can get the girder and joists in place, but you can see how we are angling the corner of the deck; this is because just over that corner is a straight 40' drop down to the creek.

So there you have it, deck building day #4...we figure Ronnie will be back at least one more day, and then Mountain Man and I will finish the floor boards. Following that will be the railing and stairs...who was it who said they had to have a 16'x42' deck??? Oh, that was me... I know, it will be fantastic when it is done...I'm so looking forward to that day! And then we can say, WE DID IT!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise

2 comments:

Great progress! Looking good! Have you considered renting a "nail gun"? Might be worth it...less effort and faster. Regarding the angle on the deck, Donald wants to know if this is where the future steps will be to go down to the creek? (Another BIG project.) Big hugs and our compliments!

Charlie has a nail gun and continues to offer it, but Mountain Man prefers the old fashioned method, mostly because we can then use ring nails and that makes for good strength. And no, that is very unlikely the place the stairs will go, too difficult to set the posts there. But we haven't made a final decision where the stairs are going yet! Hugs and thanks:)

About Me

There are moments in life when you are reminded of how precious every moment is, and how important it is to love what you live. A favorite quote by Mark Twain “twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones that you did” was posted in my office. Following several undesirable events occurring in my life recently, most significantly my younger brother passing away unexpectedly, I knew it was time to “sail away from the safe harbor” (more of the same quote).
So my retired husband (best friend/confidant/Mountain Man) and I decided we wanted to go to the place we loved most, our log cabin in the Smoky Mountains, and “live off the land”. Time to…Simplify…Explore…Appreciate…Discover…Learn… Grow…
So I resigned from my job and here we are. I am recording the adventure in this blog. I hope you enjoy the experience as much as I know I will.